Monday 23 July 2007 19.06 EDT
First published on Monday 23 July 2007 19.06 EDT

India escaped defeat in the first Test by the skin of their teeth, thanks to the bad weather that tickled and teased them before arriving in the south-east around teatime and to an uncharacteristically restrained and unbeaten innings of 76 from Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Over the 3½ hours he was at the crease, female Indian hearts will have been throbbing like diesel engines. Three and a half hours! In that time Dhoni can get from Chandigarh to Delhi on his motorbike.

By the time the light closed in and the drizzle began to drip, England, whittling away at the Indian batting order since the start, had got themselves within one wicket of a win that would put them one up in the three-match series. But with the sky deepening ever more to pewter and the scoreboard lights piercing the gloom, Michael Vaughan had already been forced, with two wickets yet to get, to abandon a pace attack armed with a second new ball still only 10 overs old. Instead he had to resort to his own prim off-spin from the Pavilion End and - with a dash of JM Barrie - the faithful Monty Panesar from the Nursery.

Panesar managed to induce a stroke so rash from RP Singh that it would have had the batsman reaching for a double dose of antihistamine, but that was all England could manage. The umpires, Steve Bucknor and Simon Taufel, had little option but to take the players from the field, ostensibly for an early tea. Despite the promise of a restart, the rain made itself comfortable and the match was abandoned as a draw at 6.20pm. India were 282 for nine, 98 shy of a win of their own.

As the England players prowled the dressing room, watching the rain, there will have been grumbled, hard-luck discussion of two decisions which they will feel cost them the win, and not a mention of swings, roundabouts and things evening themselves up. Dhoni had made 28 when James Anderson, enjoying a resurgent match, whistled one through which appeared to feather the outside edge of the bat and clip Dhoni's right elbow before ending up in Matthew Prior's gloves. England's appeal, full of genuine conviction (not always the case from any side these days), was greeted with indifference by Taufel, who simply shook his head, and outrage by Dhoni, who rubbed his elbow vigorously. If it did touch his bat, and numerous replays suggest it may have done, it was a really hard decision to make and a forgivable one to get wrong.

The lbw turned down by Bucknor only 11 deliveries before the end was more regrettable. This was a match where the fingers of the umpires had been raised with the regularity of two men outbidding each other in a charity auction. Once, 15 years ago in Port of Spain, Bucknor had been standing, in the unlikely company of Dickie Bird, when 17 lbws were awarded to West Indies and Pakistan for a Test record which still stands. Fourteen were already in the book from this game, equalling the record for this country, given at The Oval in 2000 when England met West Indies.

Now Panesar pitched one to the right-handed Sreesanth on or around middle stump, whereupon it gripped and straightened. This summer decisions such as this have been made with regularity where once they were ignored, as if the International Cricket Council's elite umpiring panel had made a group decision to endorse them. Sreesanth and India can count themselves fortunate to have survived.

Yet despite drawing a match they largely dominated, England can take a deal of satisfaction into the second Test at Trent Bridge, beginning on Friday. On paper, in the absence from the bowling attack of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff, this was a weakened side. But notwithstanding the helpful conditions that ensured neither side reached 300, the pace trio of Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Tremlett bowled with more control than any combination in the past year. After some of the dross witnessed in the previous series against West Indies it has been a pleasure to watch, and even if Hoggard has regained his fitness it seems he will have to wait. There is no reason to oust anyone from this team.

Given that England could not wait to get Dhoni to the crease, such is their lack of regard for him in any capacity other than as a colossal striker of the ball, he batted with considerable skill and character. The wicketkeeper may have some uneasy moments against the short ball - something England went full bore to try to exploit - but in that he is not alone. When first at the crease yesterday he chanced his arm, believing maybe that in the company of VVS Laxman there might yet be an opportunity to chase down the target of 380.

Later, when Laxman had been bowled off his pads by Tremlett for 39 after a sixth-wicket stand of 86, Dhoni reined himself in, farming the strike where he could, occasionally standing tall to ripple out a square cut or swish a pull.

The tail was in as he approached his fifth Test-match half-century, and the whiff of rain in the air. If India had begun the day with victory still on their mind, the dismissals of Sourav Ganguly for 40, to Sidebottom, and Dinesh Karthik for 60 to Anderson put paid to that idea.

Now Dhoni needed support from the lower order. Anil Kumble came, stayed half an hour and then left, another palpable lbw victim to Sidebottom and the new ball. It was with Zaheer Khan, who like Singh was to succumb to a rush of blood, that Dhoni scampered the single that took him to his half-century.

It had taken him 120 balls and featured six fours. Such restraint is normally for sissies. England, some time this summer, will surely see the other, more explosive side to his character.